DFS linking to a target folder within another target folder

Question

Windows Server 2012 - Attempting to setup a file server using DFS

I have the following scenario:

Namespace: \\domain\resources

Folder without targets:
Files > \\domain\resources\files

Folders with targets:
Clients > \\domain\resources\files\clients
Restricted > \\domain\resources\files\restricted

I want to create a drive map at the following level
\\domain\resources\files\clients

I also want \\domain\resources\files\restricted as a folder inside of \\domain\resources\files\clients. So end result would be \\domain\resources\files\clients\restricted points to \\domain\resources\files\restricted

This is possible? Or do I have to accept the fact I will have to look at mapping \\domain\resources\files then having people update their links in various files?

I could achieve this by using a symbolic link but this would not be replicated by DFS, also it would needed to be done per server.

Update: Basically I want to symlink restricted into the clients folder.

Solution

From your description I get the impression that you've not used DFS before. Basically (in really simple terms) DFS allows you to do this:

\\<domain>\<namespace>\<share> and point that to \\<server1>\<share> and/or \\<server2>\<share>

So in your example:

\\domain\resources\clients -> \\fileserver\files\clients
\\domain\resources\files -> \\fileserver\files\
\\domain\resources\restricted -> \\fileserver\files\clients\restricted

In my setup for example:

\\domain\namespace\users points to \\fileserver1\users$ and to \\fileserver2\users$ (the files are replicated between the two shares using DFS-R so the users can use either server to access their files).

The "$" obfuscates the user shares on the file servers and exposes them to the users under the domain's DFS namespace. This makes looking at the shares a bit cleaner on the network and "kinda" prevents the users from short-cutting directly to a server share that might or might not be up.

The simple answer is yes, I think you can do what you are asking, but you need to read up a bit. Decisions you make now will become permanent shares your users will rely on and changing it later is a pain. I use \\<domain>\<branch location>\<sharename>. In our case our branch location is in Los Angeles so I just use "LA".

Comments

[MikeAWood]

DFS has nothing to do with your file shares from your servers. It simply alias' them (for lack of a better description). In your picture your \client1 and \client2 folders have to exist somewhere. DFS doesn't host the shares, it just shares a share under a different namespace. Does that help or confuse things more?

[Taz]

This is understood - hence the notes as to where the targets are pointing. In this instance, client1 and client2 will be folders under \\fs01\clients. i.e: \\fs01\clients\client1

[MikeAWood]

ok...I am still not 100% sure I understand... \\domain\resources\files\clients -> \\fs01\clients , \\domain\resources\files\clients\clients1 -> \\fs01\clients\clients1,\\domain\resources\files\clients\cli‌​ents2 -> \\fs01\clients\clients2, \\domain\resources\files\clients\restricted -> \\fs01\clients\restricted ? if so, then sharing the "clients" folder should be sufficient.

[Taz]

Not quite. The whole point of the question is can one dfs target live within another. So \\domain\resources\files\clients\restricted should point to \\domain\resources\files\restricted instead of following the conventions of any "real" folders.

[MikeAWood]

So what you are asking is can you embed a share within a share? I am not 100% sure, but fairly confident in my answer that you cannot. Here is why. DFS only lets you host shares one level under your namespace. So everything in your example would exist under the "resources" namespace in the files share. BUT, one workaround might be to use hard links on the share to manipulate the folder structure like you are suggesting. You'd need to use Sysinternals Junction to do that though. technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896768.aspx